The objective of the proposed project is to investigate whether changes in the age structure of the population have important economic effects, and to determine the nature and magnitude of those effects. The study will focus on the baby boom generation, the group of people born during the years 1946-65, and follow it through its life cycle. Using a combination of historical research and various forms of quantitative analysis, the study will examine the dimensions of the baby boom, its effects on the school system and the school system's reponse, its effect on the labor market and on consumption patterns, and will project and analyze its future effects on the labor market, on consumption, and on programs for the aged (social security, medicare, and private pensions). The actual and possible policy responses at each of these stages will be considered in order to determine the best policies for responding to the effects of age structure changes, and in particular to the effects still to come as the baby boom matures. The working hypothesis behind the study is that a large change in age structure will have important economic and social effects throughout the life of the cohorts involved. These effects give rise to a need for a linked series of policy responses based on the recognition that the problems of on stage, e.g., high teenage unemployment, may well pass with the passing of the baby boom, and policies should thus be prepared to be flexible. Appropriate responses to the microeconomic disruptions caused by the baby boom should also be important aids to aggregate stabilization policy. The study will be published as a book by Brookings.